Anzac Day 2021 National Address

The Governor-General’s Anzac Day National Address was broadcast on the ABC on 25th April.

For more than 100 years we have set aside Anzac Day to give thanks to those who have served and to those who have died serving our country.

We honour the memory of those no longer with us and pay our respects to those whose sacrifice helped secure our way of life.

We remember individuals long gone, perhaps an ancestor who served in the First or the Second World War.

And we reflect on the collective impact of those individuals — the Anzac legacy — and what it means to us today.

Linda and I welcomed some veterans and their families to Government House recently to hear their stories and to share ours.

[Interviews and footage from Government House]

Kris Milne, veteran: I joined at a very young age. I joined at 17 and was in the Infantry for 13 years.

Courtney Milne, wife of veteran: If you are committed to someone who is in service, you need to also follow that platform and make yourself available to commit to being in service alongside them.

Adam Frizell, veteran: I spent 22 years in the Royal Australian Air Force. I was lucky enough to serve alongside my wife, Emily.

Emily Frizell, veteran: I did 16 years in the Air Force. During that time we had three young children. He deployed and I stayed at home.

Geoffrey Evans, veteran: I joined the Military in 1994. I deployed to East Timor in 2001 and then again in 2006. I did two tours of Afghanistan. I was wounded in action in Afghanistan in 2010, and then subsequently medically discharged from the Army in 2012.

Scott Leggo, veteran: I was in the Air Force for 10 years. I consider myself very fortunate in terms of what I got to experience. I went to Iraq in 2003 and the Middle East with our Hornets on deployment over there.

Geoffrey Evans, veteran: Service in the Military is not an ordinary job. There is no other field of employment where someone can be ordered to their death.

Lisa Evans, wife of veteran: I think being the partner of a veteran is a constant sacrifice. Right from the outset, you know that it’s their career you will be sacrificing for. They will be travelling — wherever they’re sent, whatever they’re required to do — which means it is very, very hard to do anything for yourself in terms of a career or in terms of personal growth.

Governor-General: I graduated from RMC-Duntroon in 1975, single. But I met Linda in ’76 and we were married in ’77. So, Linda has been an Army wife for about 38 years. Our journey in the Military has been one together.

Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley: David and I met in a bar, at The Basement in Sydney. I’m really ashamed to say this, but before that I had been at Riverina College in Wagga studying and someone warned me before I went to Wagga to have nothing to do with the Army. Anyway, that was the beginning. We then moved to Townsville and military life started. It was his whole life and I guess it became my whole life, particularly during Somalia.

Governor-General: By the time I became a Commanding Officer in 1RAR we had three small children. I deployed to Somalia during that period. I think I did confront her a bit by saying to her, 'Well, you know how important this means to us — to me and us as soldiers — to go and do this.'

Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley: I have never ever seen a group of men so excited because it was the first deployment more or less since Vietnam. He worked really hard. He said goodbye to the children that night. The next morning, he got up very early. And I can remember it so clearly, him walking down the path to catch the ferry. And that was it. Then it was, 'Okay, I’ve got three kids.' And a whole group of women — we just rallied.

Sharon Bown, veteran: I am a former Air Force Nursing Officer. I joined the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1999. Unfortunately, during my second tour of Timor in 2004 I was part of an air and medical evacuation team delivering aid in East Timor. I was involved in a serious helicopter crash which left me with a severe spinal fracture, which I still struggle with today. I was diagnosed with PTS and had aviation fuel burns to my back and shoulders and a broken jaw. I don’t know why, but I made a conscious decision that I would be a survivor of what had happened to me and not a victim. Four years after that crash I was commanding a critical care team in Afghanistan, Tarin Kowt.

Emily Frizell, veteran: Coming to terms with that mental challenge of, you know, I’ve been doing something so important, everything else now feels like I’m just playing a game.

Kris Milne, veteran: Coming back and knowing that person has sacrificed a part of their life so that you can do your job is a huge thing.

Courtney Milne, wife of veteran: The real battle is actually having them come back into your life when you’ve had a routine set and then disrupting that.

Geoffrey Evans, veteran: I think every veteran has a partner who serves as well. On the home front, you know, somebody’s got to hold all that together. Importantly, if things go wrong while people are deployed, it is the family that holds it all together. For those veterans who do face significant challenges when they return home, or after their service if they have been injured in service, it’s actually the family who will look after them for the rest of their lives.

Lisa Evans, wife of veteran: Any marriage is hard and takes a lot of compromise and negotiation. But I think when it keeps being that upheaval and you’ve got to constantly come and go from that and reintegrate. And then on top of that you’ve got someone who has been at war and in extreme circumstances and they’ve got the volatility that’s involved from returning from that environment. It’s an extra strain.

Governor-General: When people come back from deployment, they often come back with what I call the thousand-mile stare. Because on deployment what seems important now becomes irrelevant. You're really focused on the job and all those other things that are normal in life, which for a while seemed irrelevant, but now are relevant and important to other people. So, you’ve got to adjust back to that.

Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley: I do know women who are living with men who are really suffering. I think it’s really important that these people are helped. But you hear stories from women where sometimes their husband might wake up in the middle of the night and start attacking them because they’ve had a bad dream. That’s a really hard thing to live with. We have to support them and help them realise that it’s not a failure. You were out there serving your country and you saw stuff that other people have never seen before.

Sharon Bown, veteran: That everyone who signs up to serve our country, everyone who wears a uniform in the Australian Defence Force, makes a sacrifice of some sort.

Scott Leggo, veteran: When you’re in the Military there is a concept of service before self. People taking care of everyone else but not necessarily taking care of themselves.

Geoffrey Evans, veteran: I think as a society we need to understand that no veteran serves alone.

Lisa Evans, wife of veteran: One area that really needs to be recognised more is the family and keeping the family together. And support in terms of keeping the family together because it is detrimental monetarily, but obviously hugely psychological for everybody involved once the family falls apart.

Governor-General: Linda’s been through the ups and downs, particularly over the last 10 years, when we’ve lost soldiers on operations. She’s stood by me at funerals and at airstrips when people return and engage with families.

Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley: I have great admiration for partners of people in the Defence Force and the support they bring. They need support. We've got some really good programs happening. But, of course, it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a healing. It’s probably a healing that goes on for the rest of your life. We’ve got to look after them.

Governor-General: From day one when you enter Duntroon, you learn very, very quickly that it’s not about you; it’s about the people you lead. And that responsibility never goes away. You could be retired or whatever, but you still have that responsibility.

Scott Leggo, veteran: I personally kind of struggled when I came back with, 'Am I worthy of marching on Anzac Day.'

Sharon Bown, veteran: Anzac Day is the national day for us to stop and contemplate and commemorate. We have continued to serve. Australian men and women have continued to step up and say I will do what is necessary to defend Australia and her interests. And that they continue to do that.

Lisa Evans, wife of veteran: It would be nice to see Anzac Day instead of focusing on veterans as broken and in need of the community’s sympathy, it would be nice to see a community support of the veteran and recognising that they’re not just a veteran. They are part of a community and a family.

Governor-General: I think that it is an important step forward at the moment. There’s a real change of tone there. I think that falls back into the Anzac legacy — that we will look after your families. But more than look after families, it is let’s recognise and acknowledge what they do for us.

[Music fades to end]